Tales from the Crypt was a bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics from 1950 to 1955, producing 27 issues. (The first three issues of the series were titled "The Crypt of Terror". The title change began with issue #18, for a total of 43 issues in the series.) Along with its sister titles, The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror, Tales From the Crypt was popular, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s comic books came under attack from parents, clergymen, schoolteachers and others who believed the books contributed to illiteracy and juvenile delinquency. In April and June 1954, highly publicized Congressional subcommittee hearings on the effects of comic books upon children left the industry shaken. With the subsequent imposition of a highly restrictive Comics Code, EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines canceled Tales from the Crypt and its two companion horror titles, along with the company's remaining crime and science fiction series in September 1954. All EC titles have been reprinted at various times since their demise, and stories from the horror series have been adapted for television and film.

In 1950, EC publisher Gaines and his editor Al Feldstein discovered they shared similar tastes in horror and began experimenting with horror tales in their crime titles. Tales from the Crypt traces its origin to a Feldstein story, "Return from the Grave!", in EC's Crime Patrol (#15, December 1949/January 1950) with the Crypt-Keeper making his debut as host. Issue #16 featured more horror tales than crime stories, and, with issue #17, the title changed from Crime Patrol to The Crypt of Terror. Due to an attempt to save money on second-class postage permits, the numbering did not change with the title and continued as The Crypt of Terror for the next two issues.

Tales from the Crypt debuted with issue #20 (October/November 1950), producing a total of 27 issues (excluding the initial three issues, #17-19, published as The Crypt of Terror), before ceasing publication with its February/March 1955 issue (#46).

Early front covers were created by Feldstein, Johnny Craig and Wally Wood, with the remaining covers (1952–55) by Jack Davis. The contributing interior artists were Craig, Feldstein, Wood, Davis, George Evans, Jack Kamen, Graham Ingels, Harvey Kurtzman, Al Williamson, Joe Orlando, Reed Crandall, Bernard Krigstein, Will Elder, Fred Peters and Howard Larsen. Jack Davis took over the art for the Crypt-Keeper stories with (#24, June/July, 1951), and continued as the title's lead artist for the rest of the run. Feldstein devised the Crypt-Keeper's origin story "Lower Berth!" (#33) which was illustrated by Davis. Issue #38 was one of two covers from EC's horror comics censored prior to publication. While The Vault of Horror cover for issue #32 was restored in Russ Cochran's EC Library reprints, the Tales from the Crypt cover remained censored. "Kamen's Kalamity" (#31) starred many members of the EC staff, including Gaines, Feldstein and the story's artist, Kamen. Ingels, Davis and Craig also made cameo appearances in the story in single panels which they drew themselves.

As with the other EC comics edited by Feldstein, the stories in this comic were primarily based on Gaines reading a large number of horror stories and using them to develop "springboards" from which he and Feldstein could launch new stories. Specific story influences that have been identified include the following:

After their unauthorized adaptation of one of Ray Bradbury's stories in another magazine, Bradbury contacted EC about their plagiarism of his work. They reached an agreement for EC to do authorized versions of Bradbury's short fiction. These official adaptations include:

Although EC's horror stable consisted of three separate magazines, there was little beyond their titles to distinguish them. Each magazine had its titular host, but the hosting duties for any one issue were typically shared with the hosts of the other two. Thus, a single issue of Tales from the Crypt would contain two stories told by the Crypt-Keeper, one by the Vault-Keeper (of The Vault of Horror) and one by the Old Witch (of The Haunt of Fear). The professional rivalry among these three GhouLunatics was often played for comic effect.

The Crypt-Keeper was the primary host of Tales from the Crypt. He was introduced to the public in Crime Patrol #15, and he continued with that magazine through its changes in title and format. He was a frightening presence in those early issues, a sinister hermit sitting framed in the lightless crypt's half-open door, his face all but hidden by the double curtain of his long white hair. But he soon evolved into a more comedic horror host, delivering an irreverent and pun-filled commentary to lighten the horrific tone of the stories he introduced.

The Crypt-Keeper's duties were not limited to hosting. He would occasionally appear as a character as well, and these appearances give the reader a glimpse of his biography. "The Lower Berth" (Tales from the Crypt #33) gives an account of the circumstances surrounding his birth. "While the Cat's Away" (The Vault of Horror #34) conducts a tour of his house above and below ground. "Horror beneath the Streets" (The Haunt of Fear #17) tells how he and his fellow GhouLunatics got their EC publishing contracts.

In 1954, Gaines and Feldstein intended to add a fourth book to their horror publications by reactivating an earlier title, The Crypt of Terror. They were stopped dead in their tracks, however. Following the publication of Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent , horror and other violent comics had come under scrutiny by parents, schoolteachers, clergymen, psychologists, and others who viewed the material as dangerous to the well-being of children and a significant contributor to the juvenile delinquency crisis in America. Matters came to a head in April and June 1954 with a highly publicized Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. Hearings targeted violent comic books—which fared poorly in the proceedings. While the committee stopped short of blaming the comics industry for juvenile delinquency, they did suggest it tone down the product. Publishers were left reeling.

The industry deftly avoided outside censorship by creating the self-regulatory Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA) and a Comics Code Authority (CCA) that placed severe restrictions on violent comic book genres. Publishers were forbidden from using the words "terror" and "horror" in titles, for example, and forbidden from depicting zombies, werewolves, and other gruesome characters and outré horror fiction trappings. Gaines was fed up; he believed his titles were being specifically targeted and realized they were doomed to future failure. He threw in the towel, canceling Tales from the Crypt and its companion titles in September 1954. Since an issue of The Crypt of Terror had already been produced, it was published as the final issue of Tales from the Crypt, February/March, 1955.

Tales from the Crypt has been reprinted on numerous occasions. Ballantine Books reprinted selected Crypt stories in a series of paperback EC anthologies in 1964-66. The magazine was fully collected in a series of five black-and-white hardbacks by publisher Russ Cochran as part of The Complete EC Library in 1979. Cochran (in association with Gladstone Publishing and solo) reprinted a handful of single color issues in 1990/91. Between September 1992 and December 1999, Cochran and Gemstone Publishing reprinted the full 30 individual issues. This complete run was later rebound, with covers included, in a series of six softcover EC Annuals. In 2007, Cochran and Gemstone began to publish hardcover, re-colored volumes of Tales from the Crypt as part of the EC Archives series. Three volumes (of a projected five) were published before Gemstone's financial troubles left the project in limbo. The project was then revived under a new publisher, Dark Horse Comics, which has to resumed it with the release of Tales from the Crypt Volume 4 in October 2013 and Tales from the Crypt Volume 5 in November 2014. [3]

The 1972 film from Amicus Productions features five stories from various EC comics. "Reflection of Death" (#23) and "Blind Alleys" (#46) were adapted for the film, the others were adapted from Haunt of Fear and Vault of Horror. A second Amicus film, The Vault of Horror, also used stories from Tales from the Crypt and Shock SuspenStories (despite its title, it didn't use any stories published in the *Vault of Horror* comic). A homage film entitled Creepshow followed, paying tribute to the tone, look, and feel of Tales from the Crypt and other EC comics, without directly adapting any of the stories.

In 1993, Tales from the Crypt was adapted into a Saturday morning cartoon series entitled Tales from the Cryptkeeper, based on the series (albeit with none of the violence or other questionable content that was in the original series), with Kassir as the Cryptkeeper again; it ran from September 18, 1993 to December 6, 1997.[4] None of the episodes were based on the comics, or the HBO show; they were all original stories.

In 1994, Ace Novelty released a board game based on Tales from the Cryptkeeper called Tales from the Cryptkeeper Search for the lost Tales

In late 1993 a pinball machine titled Tales from the Crypt was produced under license by Data East.[5]

In 1996, another adaptation (a Saturday morning game show) called Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House ran from September 14 to August 1997, with Kassir once again in the role of the Cryptkeeper as announcer.

Two films by Universal Studios, Demon Knight (1995) and Bordello of Blood (1996), were based on the series, neither of which was particularly successful with critics despite gaining cult followings from fans. A third film, Ritual, was slated for theatrical release in 2001, but was only distributed internationally (without the Tales from the Crypt connection) until 2006 when it was released on DVD in the United States, with the Cryptkeeper bits restored. Unlike the 1970s-era Amicus films, these three films were not based on stories from any of the EC comics. Interestingly, The Frighteners was intended to be another movie in the series, but because of how the show's ratings declined during its seventh & final season, Bordello of Blood bombed at the box office, and executive producer Robert Zemeckis was really impressed with the screenplay penned by director Peter Jackson and his partner, Fran Walsh, he decided that it was best for it to be its own standalone film instead.

Freddy has managed to cheat death for many decades by having his old friend, a surgeon, perform transplants on him to replace his organs with those from a younger man. But he has to steal them from corpses, and now he's finding he has less and less time before he needs another operation.

Convinced that he became a werewolf after a mysterious incident during a trip to Europe, Ralph goes to visit his old friend George for help. But with the full moon rising, he's closer to the truth than he knows.

A surgeon, furious that his fiancee has left him to marry an artistically gifted man, decides to take his revenge by cutting off his love rival's hand. The artist commits suicide, but the severed hand appears to have taken on a life of its own.

A couple whose plane went down over the Bermuda Triangle are trapped on a lifeboat in the middle of the sea. They think they're in luck when they come across a ship; until they find a skeleton tied to the helm.

The young sub-curator of a museum is angry that his own invention is being ignored in favour of a new exhibit: the body of a Neanderthal encased in ice. The enraged man decides to get even by thawing out the body and leaving it to decompose in the sun, but does not think to check that the "caveman" is really dead.

Daniel Richards is staying in Haiti with his wealthy plantation-owning friend. He ignores instructions not to spy on a native voodoo ritual, but then notices something very interesting about the photo he took of the event.

Janet is worried that her workaholic brother is ruining his health, so she calls in the family doctor to give him a reviving tonic. When he begins going through a monstrous transformation, it's a race against time to find out what was in the tonic.

Theodore Warren goes into a trance and draws the face of a terrified-looking man. He's shocked, but not as much as when he meets the man in real life - a man who's carving Warren's own name into a tombstone.

A prisoner on death row is visited by a professor who claims to be able to revive him after his death. The prisoner is executed in the electric chair, and the professor brings him back to life. He shoots the professor and goes to take his revenge on the judge who sentenced him to death, but finds that maybe he shouldn't have been quite so hasty ...

A fraternity boy is determined to terrify the new pledges going through a hazing ritual, and makes them go to the top floor of an old house rumoured to be haunted. He gets his comeuppance when the boys disappear and he is sent to find them.

Larry kills his love rival, John, and as a parting shot is determined to marry John's wife wearing the same tuxedo that John wore at the wedding. Unfortunately, this is what John was buried in, and now Larry has to dig up the body to retrieve it.

Bill is in love with Laura, but Laura loves only Jim. Bill kills Jim and decides he must kill Laura because she knows about the murder. What Bill does not know is that when Jim promised to always protect Laura, he really meant it.

Jean and her lover Freddie are involved in a car accident. Jean needs a blood transfusion but no one at the scene is a match, until a mysterious stranger appears and volunteers his help. Shortly afterwards, bodies begin turning up in town, drained of their blood ...

The owners of a failing amusement park find themselves in luck when a newcomer agrees to sell them the rights to an amazing new rollercoaster. They decide to save on further costs by not testing the ride for safety, but then when it opens, they're offered the first turn on the new attraction.

Robert needs a fancy dress costume for a New Year party, and goes to the attic. He discovers there's a curse on his family which means that anyone who uses the old Arnold musket and powder-horn dies at New Year. Robert's confident that curses don't exist, until he takes the items to complete his costume.

A man skeptical about the supernatural is talked into attending a seance. He's sure he can trick the medium into proving herself a fake by asking her to channel the spirit of his wife, who's still alive. Or is she?

Two old friends are doctors who can't agree whether illness is physical or just in the mind. When one of them is close to death, the other is convinced he can save his old friend through hypnosis - a technique so successful it keeps the patient's heart beating even after his death.

Ralph wants to give his fragile, sickly wife such a fright that it will cause her fatal heart failure, and he can inherit her money, the money she gained when they murdered her wealthy old uncle together. He decides that making her uncle "reappear" will be just the shock to kill her, not knowing that the corpse is already ahead of him.

Eddie is madly in love with a woman who does not return his affections. He meets a mysterious stranger claiming to be an alchemist, who gives Eddie a potion to make the woman fall madly in love with him. The stranger says Eddie will soon be back for the antidote, and Eddie laughs, but soon finds out he should have listened.

Henri Mataud is the proprietor of a wax museum devoted to figurines of famous murderers. He becomes fed up with his wife "ruining" the exhibits by relieving them of their heavy weapons and awkward poses, so he decides to stop her for good, without realizing just how much the figures appreciated her efforts.

Sandra and her lover Fred arrange to kill Sandra's husband, but at the same time as she is murdering her husband, Fred is hit by a truck and dies. When Sandra's husband wakes up in Fred's body, he has only one thing on his mind.

Two entrepreneurs want to pay off a French stage magician to perform his wondrous magic tricks on stage in the USA. He refuses, so they kill him and steal his manuscript with the intention of staging his horrific "illusions" themselves. There's just one important detail he left out of the script.

Myra is devastated after her husband takes off on an unexpected business trip and never comes back. His business partner returns without him, and Myra discovers that maybe her husband isn't quite who she thought he was.

During the French Revolution, a corrupt duke makes money by taking bribes to save condemned aristocrats from the guillotine, and then turning them in to the authorities. But if a chicken can survive without its head, why can't a human?

A hypnotist's act includes reducing his wife to a near-death state by using his powers to slow her heart. He decides to use this to kill her so he can marry his new girlfriend; but forgets that there is also a command to revive her.

Arnold takes over his father's business and fires a loyal employee for being too old. The man returns to his native Haiti and sends Arnold a present: a sapling from a magical tree that prevents old age. It works just a bit too well.

A child whose abusive stepfather keeps locking him in the closet appears to have found an imaginary "friend." He tells his mother that someone really lives inside the closet, someone who wants to punish his stepfather.

Clint is on the run and asks an old "friend" to help him escape by boat - a friend whose lover he seduced, crippled in an accident, and then abandoned. The friend agrees to help Clint, but Clint didn't specify exactly where he wanted to be taken.

A greedy businessman who loves spiders uses one of his pets to kill a business associate who was about to expose his embezzlement. On a trip abroad, he finds himself closer to his fanged friends than he could ever have imagined.

A film producer travels to the Arctic on location and falls in love with a beautiful young girl he meets there. He wants her to come to Hollywood with him and become a star. The girl's guardian angrily opposes this, and the producer convinces her to run away with him anyway. But once they arrive he discovers a very good reason why she should have stayed at home.

Seven-year-old Toby lives with his abusive aunt, who beats him for stealing coal from the shed. She eventually decides to put a lock on the coal-bin to keep him out, which backfires when she becomes trapped there herself.

Andrew goes to stay with his wealthy uncle Ambrose, whose other heirs have all mysteriously died after coming to live at Ambrose's mansion. Ambrose seems like a kindly old man but his wife warns Andrew that something far more sinister is afoot.

The owners of a cargo vessel build a complicated rat trap to catch rodents on their ship, resulting in a device that traps the rats and forces them to kill each other for survival. Luckily, humans are more advanced than this - or so the men think, until their own boat begins to sink.

A circus elephant trainer decides to use his act as a cover to kill his wife so he can marry his new girlfriend. He's not counting on his wife, or the elephant, making a reappearance in the ring - even after they're dead.

A greedy couple in India kill a young peasant girl who refuses to tell them the secret of her magic rope trick. They're sure they can work out how to perform it themselves and make their fortune, but didn't listen to her warnings that the rope will take orders from no one but her.

A spoiled young prince loves his elderly nursemaid. When she dies suddenly, the king and queen promise to hold a splendid state funeral for her. The boy is looking forward to the event, until he discovers the old woman isn't dead at all, and decides to take matters into his own hands.

A selfish king forces his subjects to pay all kinds of exorbitant taxes to make him rich, until he demands that people lose body parts if they can't pay. Then his subjects come to claim his own unpaid tax contribution ...

A playboy uses bride and groom voodoo dolls to make a rich, elderly woman marry him so he can get his hands on her money. When he meets a new girlfriend, he uses the dolls to kill his wife, unaware that the doll still holds power even after the death of the real bride.

Explorers uncovering the tomb of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh do not believe in the reported curse of the mummy that lies inside the tomb, until they decide to steal the pharaoh's treasures for themselves.

A you-are-the-protagonist story. As a taxi driver working in a town where a series of recent murders have been attributed to vampires, you become suspicious of a passenger who seems to know a few too many details about the deaths.

A bigamist has been living with two separate wives, one of whom loves bowling and the other loves to play golf. They discover this ruse when they meet in a hotel where their respective tournaments are being held; and decide to take their revenge in a most sporting fashion.

A doctor swears vengeance when he is disbarred from practicing. He imprisons the committee members and transplants their brains into dogs, using the animals to make him rich as a sideshow performer. However, their survival instinct is stronger than he thought.

A swindler marries a wealthy woman for her money and then kills her, disposing of her body in the faithful old trunk that she carries while travelling. The trunk is determined not to let him get away with the murder.

A man falls in love with a woman he met at a masquerade ball, despite never having seen her real face. They agree to unmask each other on their wedding night but the groom may not be so keen on what he finds under the mask.

Children overhear a plot between the local doctor and undertaker to make money by poisoning the wealthiest people in town and then charging their families for elaborate funerals. When their latest victim turns out to be the father of one of the boys, the children devise a little scheme of their own.

A lonely grave is filled with the body of an equally lonely woman who was murdered by her niece and nephew. She returns from the grave, which does not want to let her go, but she repays it by filling it with two new corpses.

Carla is terrorized by her husband, a sadistic sideshow freak with the power of telepathy. He learns that she is having an affair and settles on a plan to kill her lover, using a series of local murders as a cover. But Carla finds a way to settle the score - and whoever or whatever committed the murders is still on the loose.

Ezra, an old sea captain, moves in with his sister Mildred. He goes insane, having the house remodelled to look like the inside of his ship, and treating Mildred as a slave. But when the exertion gives her a fatal heart attack, Ezra finds himself all at sea.

Geniuses Andrew and Philip have been best friends all their lives, until Philip marries an unscholarly woman and stops spending time with Andrew. Lucky for Andrew, he has devised a way to keep Philip with him forever.

A circus performer's daughter is seduced by a ruffian knife-thrower who is already married. The father hatches a plot to have the man sent away to jail by killing his wife during their act, but does not anticipate a last-minute change of circumstances.

Roy Dixon committed the perfect murder at Four Corners. All four connecting states have made a bid to send him to Death Row but he walked free. So why are his nightmares of execution becoming all too real?

In a reader-as-narrator story, you attempt to steal a miser's treasure that he has been bringing up from a shipwreck. You kill him when he gets in your way, but when he said he was ready for you, he was dead right!

An executioner in post-Revolution France is paid by a corrupt noble's brother to expose the man as a monarchist and have him sent to the guillotine. The executioner saves the man's head as a trophy, and finds it harder to dispose of than he expected.